Richmond Endowment Leaders Speak at First Jewish Legacy Forum

At the conference, Gardner and Nomberg presented a best practices workshop on Create a Jewish Legacy branding and marketing. The forum focused on sharing expertise and innovations to help build and promote legacy programs in Jewish communities across North America. A legacy is a gift left for the future of the community, to carry on the donor’s wishes beyond his or her lifetime. This typically includes an endowment, which is a permanent fund that provides perpetual support to an organization from the income earned. This is especially important during tough economic times, when other funding sources may be cut back.
“We encourage communities to use endowments and planned gifts as a long-term strategy for building and sustaining the Jewish community,” said Joe Imberman, Associate Vice-President Planned Giving and Endowments at the Jewish Federations of North America, which co-sponsored the forum with the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.

The forum covered such topics as creating a legacy culture in the community, partnering with agencies to build endowments and helping each donor fulfill their own philanthropic vision through legacy planning. Eighty-five professionals and lay leaders from 26 communities attended.

“We need to both engage the soul and engage in business planning to reach a golden age of philanthropy we could only have dreamed of a few years ago,” said opening speaker Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and co-author of The Art of Giving.

Keynote speaker and award-winning columnist Amy Hirshberg Lederman summed up what many of the participants sensed. “We are witness to something historic. We are all here for a reason. We believe in the future of Jewish people and we can make a difference in that future.”

To learn more about how you can leave a legacy to benefit the charities of your choice please contact Robert Nomberg at 545-8656 or visit here to learn more about Create a Jewish Legacy.

PHOTO CREDIT: Martha Lochert Photography